Pentax Optio RZ18 zooms into the compact party

Ultra-zoom 18x model announced

Pentax Optio RZ18 zooms into the compact party

13 September 2011 11:47 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

Pentax has taken on the likes of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 with its latest ultra-zoom compact camera; the Pentax Optio RZ18.

Boasting an effective megapixel count of 16 and a 18x optical zoom, the body may be compact but the hardware is anything but. The lens also has a 25mm wide angle to 450mm super-telephoto when set in the 35mm format.

Shooting options are abundant too, there's a digital panorama mode, a digital wide option (19mm), face detection, smile capture, blink detection and it even has pet detection capabilities too (insert Ace Ventura joke here).

Video capture is 720p, so not quite the 1080p of the ZS10 but on the back is a 3-inch LCD with 460k dots to watch back all your action.

It's capable of shooting up to 40 images, at a maximum speed of 9 images per second and it's Eye-Fi compatible too, for easy uploading.

Out in October, the Pentax Optio RZ18 will cost around £200. It'll be available in black, white or orange.

Full tags

Cameras, Pentax, Pentax Optio RZ18, Compact cameras, 16 megapixels